Location Use & Dyna-Lites

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Has anyone who owns Dyna-Lites and who does reasonably heavy location shooting, packing, shipping, and generally subjecting lights to the stresses of location shooting, encountered problems with these lights? I ask, because a sales rep at Calumet said he'd heard that Dyna-Lites have problems under these circumstances. This isn't to say one shouldn't be careful, but there is still the potential to unwittingly abuse equipment under these circumstances.

I was considering purchasing some Dyna-Lites, because of their convenient weight, and now I'm pausing. I would be surprised if Dyna-Lites were more vunerable, because I would think that their lower than average weight would be targeted at the location photographer.

-- neil poulsen (neil.fg@att.net), May 26, 2002

Answers

I have some dyna-lites which I really love, I've had them for about four years and have never had any problems with them at all. I use a pelican cases for transport and they still look and work great, the only potential thing to look at is if your flying a lot, you might want to remove the modeling lights, and wrap them extra well but I'd say the same thing about any brand, you never know how those luggage handlers are going to handle your heavy cases. I'd say get them, calumet just wants everybody to buy balcar. If you are really rough on your gear get some speedos they are tough but big and HEAVY.

-- doug (doug@ajenda.com), May 27, 2002.

I've used Dyna-lites for the last 9 years, studio & location. 2 repairs (from 5 packs) in that time. Go for it.

-- Mark Sampson (MSampson45@aol.com), May 28, 2002.

I have used Dynalite 1000x's since the late 80's with only 1 repair but the pack still worked. It was a matter of a board going out on one of the packs and was an easy repair. I pack them in Tundra bags and they have been all over! Highly recommend them. See if the salesman at Calumet even shoots. Alot could be hearsay. If you treat your stuff carefully (I surely don't baby my stuff just common sense), it will last a long time! Definitely go with the Dynalites, you won't be sorry!

-- Scott Walton (walton@ll.mit.edu), May 28, 2002.

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